RoAF 86th Air Base
air base in Borcea, Romania
The Romanian Air Force 86th Air Base "Lieutenant Aviator Gheorghe Mociorniță" (Romanian: Baza 86 Aeriană "Locotenent aviator Gheorghe Mociorniță"), also known as Fetești or Borcea Air Base, is located in commune Borcea, Călărași County near the town of Fetești. It is currently the home of the 53rd Fighter Squadron (operating F-16 Fighting Falcons).
The current commander of the base is General de flotilă aeriană Iulian Pațilea.
History
On the current grounds of the airbase, a military aerodrome was established in 1939 following an order of the General Staff. Known as the Cocargeaua aerodrome, it was to be used as a reserve landing and deployment base of the Royal Romanian Air Force during World War II. In 1940, wooden barracks, and fuel storage facilities were built on the airfield. Over the years, the name of the base varied between Cocargeaua, Bărăganu, Borcea, and Fetești. In February 1944, the 51st Fighter Squadron of the 5th Fighter Group was moved to the Cocargeaua aerodrome and began flying interception missions against USAAF bombers with Bf 109E and IAR 80 fighters starting in April. After 23 August 1944, the 52nd Fighter Squadron also joined the 51st at Cocargeaua where the 5th Group remained until the end of the war.
During the Soviet occupation of Romania, the aerodrome was used as a base by the Soviet Air Forces until 1958. On 9 August 1958, the 206th Tactical Fighter Aviation Regiment, equipped with MiG-17PF fighters, together with the 499th Technical Base were moved to Cocargeaua and received a squadron of MiG-19 aircraft.
“RoAF 86th Air Base” enters the record as air base in Borcea, Romania. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what RoAF, 86th and Base can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5754946. Authority coordinates are 44.396, 27.726. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1940, 1944 and 1958.
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This entry incorporates text from “RoAF 86th Air Base” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.